Google fined $425m for privacy breach

WASHINGTON: A US federal court has ordered Google to pay $425 million (£316.3 million) in damages after ruling that the tech giant violated users’ privacy by continuing to collect data from millions of people, even when they had switched off a tracking feature in their Google accounts.

According to the BBC, the ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of users who alleged that Google accessed their mobile devices to gather, store, and exploit personal data despite assurances given under its Web & App Activity setting.

The plaintiffs had initially sought over $31 billion in damages.

In its statement to the BBC, Google rejected the decision, arguing that the court had misinterpreted the way its products function.

A company spokesperson said: “This decision misunderstands how our products work, and we will appeal it. Our privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they turn off personalisation, we honour that choice.”

The jury found Google guilty on two out of three counts of privacy violations but ruled that the company had not acted with malice. The class action case, filed in July 2020, covered nearly 98 million Google users and 174 million devices.

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Google, however, maintains that when users switch off the Web & App Activity option in their accounts, businesses using Google Analytics may still collect data on site and app usage. The company insists that such information does not identify individual users and respects their privacy preferences.

In a separate but related development this week, shares in Google’s parent company Alphabet surged by more than nine per cent on Wednesday after another US federal judge ruled that the company would not be forced to sell its Chrome web browser. However, the court ordered Google to share search data with competitors and barred it from signing exclusive contracts that could limit competition.

The decision was delivered by District Judge Amit Mehta following a years-long legal battle focused on Google’s overwhelming dominance in online search. At the centre of the case was Google’s practice of making its search engine the default option on a wide range of devices, including its own Android phones and Chrome browser, as well as on devices manufactured by other companies such as Apple.

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The US Department of Justice had pushed for stronger remedies, including the forced sale of Chrome. But Tuesday’s ruling means Google will retain ownership of its popular browser, while facing restrictions designed to curb its market dominance and allow rival companies access to user search data.

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Web Desk